Aznar accuses Sánchez of treating those affected by DANA “as if they were strangers”

The former President of the Government, José María Aznar, accused on Wednesday the head of the Executive, Pedro Sánchez, of having treated the victims of the devastating Isolated High Level Depression (DANA) that devastated the Valencian Community, Castilla- La Mancha and Andalusia last week, “as if they were foreigners”.

Aznar, who participated in a conference in Ávila with former president Felipe González, assured that “when you have a responsibility, you have to exercise it.” “What cannot be done is to escape its responsibilities, the responsibility fundamentally lies with the Government,” he recalled.

And he assured that this responsibility “must be assumed with all its consequences”. “When you face a situation of this type, you must not treat your compatriots as if they were foreigners, when you have responsibilities you are not president of an NGO, you are president of the Government,” he insisted.

Furthermore, he showed his “fervent desire” to improve things and assured that now that the time has come for reconstruction, “it is very important that any minor element be put aside” to concentrate “on the big questions, using all means to be effective in helping people, victims and reconstruction.”

Aznar advocated that this not be “muddled” by broad discussions about jurisdiction or bureaucracy. “If it is said that this is the greatest natural disaster of this century, we must act accordingly and when we have a responsibility, we must exercise it,” he said.

Furthermore, he warned that the government “cannot remain in the hands of those who want to destroy the nation”, in reference to the nationalist and independence parties, “because otherwise the State cannot function, because those who maintain the situation cannot “have no interest in the nation surviving or the state functioning. »

Government “responsibility”

In the same sense, former President Felipe González emphasized that when an event produces “a catastrophic national effect, we must all agree to act with all available means, from the central government to regional governments and municipalities “.

“Let them sit down and agree,” he said, acknowledging that “the responsibility lies with the government of the nation.” “Let them assume the responsibility that the country has entrusted to them, and that is what I want them to do,” he declared, recalling that decentralizing power “is not centrifugalizing power” but rather “distribute powers”.

Trump’s victory

The two former presidents also discussed Republican Donald Trump’s victory in Tuesday’s US presidential elections and agreed that a period of “unpredictability” and “uncertainty” was beginning.

Aznar believed that “something very serious happens deep down in a country when a person who has been president and who is responsible for the attack on the Congress of his country and the attempted coup d’état is elected president. “There is something very profound happening in this country that needs to be observed and analyzed,” he said.

For his part, González assured that the election “is full of uncertainties” at a time of “serious conflicts” like those in Ukraine or Gaza.

“Everything is going to be more unpredictable than before. The most important factor is uncertainty, but that is what the Americans have clearly chosen. We are in an extraordinarily delicate moment,” he said.